Funny Side of the Street

The Class Act has seen over 80 stagings around the country till now,and has been immensely successful,owing to the play’s plot,which Patel believes everyone can relate to. “The play develops in a classroom environment. That is something everybody has experienced and is therefore aware of its dynamics,” says Patel,elaborating further,“It is an acting class and the professor is dealing with a bunch of good-for-nothing actors. The play proceeds in a very structured manner and the bad actors have been portrayed really well by good actors. The mucking up is well choreographed. Also,what I think really gets the audience ticking is the unexpected humour.”

The play also plays on cultural and ethnic stereotypes,but in a different way. “There are four students. The Hindu is a veteran theatre artist from Delhi who believes in the purity of theatre and looks down upon television and cinema. The Parsi,a 50-year-old man,is a bachelor who still lives with his father and loves his bike more than anything else. The Christian again is a typical Goan Christian who leads a carefree life with a bald head and in shorts,” says Patel. He further adds,“But the Muslim has not been stereotyped. It is because they are often misrepresented. Mohammad,the Muslim protagonist,is a young boy and he is clean shaven. He speaks fluent English and reads Shakespeare.”

The play sees a twist when a female television actor is sent to the workshop by her director,whom she hasn’t met or seen,for an upcoming film which she has been cast in. The director is clad as one of the four actors in the class and the dynamics of the interaction between the characters then becomes a crucial aspect of the play. Patel himself plays the role of the professor — Mr Williams,a stuck-up aristocrat.

The Class Act will be staged at Nehru Memorial Hall,Camp,

on December 1,at 7 pm